Orwellian' State & NSA Surveillance

Orwellian' State & NSA Surveillance: Panel Discussion with: Daniel Ellsberg America's most well-known whistleblower, Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers and changed Americans' understanding of and support for the Vietnam War. Shahid Bhuttar Director of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, constitutional lawyer, grassroots organizer, independent columnist, musician, and poet. Norman Solomon Journalist, media critic, anti-war activist, co-founder of RootsAction.org, founding director of Institute for Public Accuracy, and author of War Made Easy. Cindy Cohn Legal Director and General Counsel of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Ms. Cohn serves as counsel in First Unitarian Church v. NSA and Jewel v. NSA, each seeking to stop the ongoing dragnet warrantless surveillance of millions of ordinary Americans. Moderator: Robert Jaffe Volunteer Attorney, Hedges v. Obama. You will learn the issues and what to do about

• The 'legal' basis of NSA surveillance and its constitutional issues. Secrets of the 'almost accountable' Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court • Surveillance by the NSA and its threat to privacy and freedom, the 'Almost Orwellian' state

• The role of the media as a check and balance to surveillance: Edward Snowden, the Guardian (UK), and journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras.

• Congress: Its strengths and weaknesses and oversight that is out of sight. This is a fundraiser for the Bill of Rights Defense Committee and the Freedom of the Press Foundation.